A new book by Ibram X. Kendi is coming in 2026.
One World will publish the author’s Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age next spring, the press announced in a news release. The press says the book “charts how ‘great replacement theory’ has moved from the margins to become the most dominant political theory of our time—and what we can do to safeguard democracy from this insidious threat.”
The great replacement conspiracy theory, originated by French novelist Renaud Camus, is the racist idea that white people are being “replaced” by people of color with the help of global elites. The theory gained national attention in the U.S. after the “Unite the Right” rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which protesters chanted, “You will not replace us.” It was also cited by domestic terrorists in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the 2019 El Paso, Texas, Walmart massacre.
Kendi is one of the country’s most influential authors of antiracist books, including his National Book Award–winning Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and his bestselling How To Be an Antiracist. His most recent book, Malcolm Lives!: The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers, was published in May.
One World says that in Chain of Ideas, Kendi “uses exacting and clear prose to uncover the roots of great replacement theory and its various mutations around the world. It is an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.”
Chain of Ideas is slated for publication on March 17, 2026.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
